A document handling apparatus is utilized for handling sheets such as, but not limited to, checks, paper currency, food and premium coupons and other like documents. There are a number of applications in which it is desired to be able to handle such sheets at high speed, to evaluate said sheets to ascertain whether they meet or fail to meet certain criteria and to divert the evaluated sheets to an output path associated with the results of the evaluation. For example, in the handling of paper currency, it is extremely desirable to be able to sort paper currency in accordance with certain criteria. Many banks and other like institutions utilize automated facilities sometimes referred to as 24-hour banking equipment, in which it is possible to withdraw money at any hour of the day or night simply by inserting a plastic card into an appropriate slot and manipulating certain buttons upon a control panel for the purpose of withdrawing money, such as paper currency, for example. Such automated banking equipment has been found to operate successfully only with the use of new or nearly new paper currency, since paper currency which is worn or has any tears or folded corners will not be properly fed by the automatic teller equipment and will, in fact, cause it to jam. Since new or nearly new paper currency is often difficult to obtain on a regular basis from the Federal Reserve, one of the best techniques of obtaining new or nearly new paper currency which will meet all of the criteria necessary for use in automatic banking equipment, is to examine paper currency taken in by the bank and sort out all new or nearly new paper currency for use in the automatic teller equipment. This technique is presently being done manually which constitutes an extremely tedious and time-consuming procedure.
Other operations which banks and other similar institutions are interested in performing at high speed are evaluation of paper currency for purposes of sorting unfit paper currency from fit paper currency, in order to withdraw unfit paper currency from circulation and return same to the Federal Reserve for subsequent destruction. Paper currency which, although it may not quite meet the stringent criteria which must be met for use in automated teller equipment, may nevertheless be in satisfactory condition for use by the bank or other similar institutions in normal day-to-day transactions. It thus becomes desirable to sort otherwise fit paper currency from unfit paper currency in order to provide tellers with paper currency acceptable for continuing circulation and to remove unfit paper currency from circulation and for return to the Federal Reserve. Operations of this nature are also being performed manually. It is thus extremely desirable to be able to perform such operations in an automatic, high-speed manner and to be able to evaluate sheets such as paper currency to determine whether they are too stiff or too limp; too light or too dark; ripped, torn, perforated or otherwise damaged; have torn and/or folded corners and even evaluate such sheets to determine or aid in a determination of their authenticity.